Morristown girl touches bat, needs rabies shots

(WBIR- Morristown) A Morristown girl needs the rabies vaccination after touching a dead bat at the Rose Center Museum.

Betsy Stibler said her 6-year-old daughter, Emma-Kate Stibler, went to the museum June 17 for dance class. Before her class, Emma-Kate stopped in the Children's Touch Museum to play.

Stibler said her daughter picked up what she thought was a toy bat, but the object was a dead bat.

"When she picked it up and held it in her little hand, she realized it wasn't a toy so she screamed," Stibler said.

Stibler said she took Emma-Kate to East Tennessee Children's Hospital last Friday where she received three rabies vaccinations as a precaution for handling the dead bat. Emma-Kate got another shot Monday and will need two more to complete the treatment.

"She's not ordinarily the child that picks up spiders and worms and that sort of thing," Stibler said. "She thought it was meant for her to handle because it was in that museum."

WBIR reached out to the Rose Center, but they declined to comment at this time.